Home Owners Insurance

The Structure of Your Home (Dwelling):

Pays for damage to your house and to structures attached to your house. This includes damage to fixtures, such as plumbing, electrical wiring, heating and permanently installed air-conditioning systems.

Other Structures:

Pays for damage to fences, tool sheds, freestanding garages, guest cottages and other structures not attached to your house.

Personal Property:

Reimburses you for the value of your possessions at there replacement cost, including furniture, electronics, appliances and clothing, damaged or lost even when they aren’t on your property, such as those at an off-site storage locker or with your child at college.

Loss of Use:

Pays some of your additional living expenses while your home is being repaired.

Personal Liability:

Covers your financial loss if you are sued and found legally responsible for injuries or damages to someone else.

Medical Payments:

Pays medical bills for people hurt on your property or hurt

You Can Also Purchase Supplemental Policies Such As:

Valuable Articles/Floater Policies (i.e. Jewelry Insurance)

The standard policy provides only from $1,000 to $2,000 for theft of jewelry. If your jewelry is worth a lot more, you should purchase higher limits. You may wish to add a floater to your policy to cover specific pieces of jewelry and other expensive possessions such as paintings, electronic equipment, stamp collections or silverware, for example. The floater will provide both higher limits and protect you from additional risks, not covered in your normal policy.

Flood Policies

Homeowner’s policies do not cover damage from floods. If you are in an area that has a high risk of flooding make sure to buy a flood policy.

Covers your dwelling, personal property, and pays for living expenses until your home is repaired. In California we highly recommend that you purchase EQ insurance since we have the highest earthquake rates in the United States!

Make sure to take the following into consideration when buying earthquake insurance.

Where your property is located

The age of your property

The style of construction

The company that is currently insuring the property for fire, etc.

Whether you own a condominium, mobile home, or are a renter.

What to think about when buying EQ insurance

What is your risk profile?

How close are you to a fault line? Do you have a slab or a post and pier foundation? Is the home wood frame construction? Is it a “soft story” home (living area built over a garage)? Are you on bedrock or fill? How much equity do you have in your home? Enter your address at http://myhazards.calema.ca.gov/ (California Only) to learn about the soil conditions and quake forecasts where you live Read at least one of the articles by financial experts at http://www.uphelp.org/ on equity considerations.

Could you afford to pay out of pocket for repairs/rebuilding?

What would you do if you couldn’t? Quake damage often requires engineering fixes which can be very expensive – typically $50k and up. Can you afford a policy with a 10 percent instead of a 15 percent deductible and if so – how much would the damage have to be before coverage would kick in?

At what level of loss would the repair/rebuild of your home be an unacceptable financial burden?

Most insurance policies have a 10 or 15 percent deductible. The price and high deductibles for EQ policies have led many people to avoid buying the product, but remember: if you live in a quake-prone region, going “bare” with no insurance means you have a 100 percent deductible…you’ll bear the entire risk yourself.

Can you afford not to have earthquake insurance? A generally accepted rule of thumb is that you should not risk more than 10 percent of your liquid assets. A large earthquake could mean:

10 to 100 percent of your home’s structure could be damaged or destroyed

Up to 20 percent of your belongings could be damaged

$3,000 a month for temporary rent and relocation costs

Call us today for more information for protecting your home from the next big one.

Umbrella Policies (additional liability)

Today, lawsuits are everywhere. Lawyers are awarding larger amounts of money than ever. Homeowners, auto, and watercraft policies have a limit on liability insurance. If an unfortunate accident should happen that is your fault, do you have enough liability insurance from your current policies to cover your costs for negligence? Since no one can predict how much a judge may award the injured person, umbrella insurance is not just for the wealthy anymore, but a needed protection for every policyholder.

Umbrella insurance is designed to give one added liability protection above and beyond the limits on homeowners, auto, and watercraft personal insurance policies. With an umbrella policy, depending on the insurance company, one can add an additional 1-5 million in liability protection. This protection is designed to “kick-in” when the liability on other current policies has been exhausted.

Liability insurance is the portion of a homeowners or auto policy that pays for expenses such as the injured persons medical bills, rehabilitative therapy, and lost wages due to the negligence of the at fault person. The liability portion of an insurance policy also covers a legal defense representative if the negligence would happen to land the at fault person in the court room. After adding up all of the medical expenses for the injured and the legal fees of the negligent person, the standard liability in one’s homeowners or auto policy is often not enough. Almost every state has financial responsibility laws that will hold drivers accountable for bodily injury and property damage resulting from car accidents and the at fault driver could be sued for the damage. Personal assets from the at fault driver could be seized resulting from a lawsuit. Similar laws are also in force for home and watercraft owners.

There is good news. A personal liability umbrella insurance policy can give one added liability protection without a large added cost. Additional liability insurance is often inexpensive, especially compared to the added coverage one gains. Furthermore, liability insurance covers one’s non-business activities anywhere in the world. Having the added protection of a liability umbrella policy is coverage no one should go without.

Contact us today for more information on how a personal umbrella policy can protect you and your assets.